That’s the conclusion of a study[1] by the Employee Benefit Research Institute[2]. EBRI determined that more than half of workers saving for retirement have less than $50,000 put away; Other employees are counting on employer-provided benefits in retirement that are increasingly unavailable.

"Despite recent moves by large companies to freeze pensions and
chip away at retiree-health benefits, Americans remain confident — if
dangerously naïve — about their retirement prospects, according to new
research.

Many workers are counting on traditional pension plans to pay
their bills in retirement, even though such plans are fast disappearing. Only
40% of working couples currently are covered by pension plans, but nearly
two-thirds of surveyed workers — 61% — expect to get income from such a plan
in retirement, according to the Retirement Confidence Survey, scheduled for
release today by the Employee Benefit Research Institute, a Washington
nonprofit, and others.

The responses in the survey, conducted annually for the past 16
years, reflect few worries about the spreading curtailment of pension plans.
Twenty-four percent of the survey’s participants said that they are very
confident that they will have enough money to live comfortably in retirement –
virtually the same number as last year — and 44% of those surveyed said they
are somewhat confident about their financial prospects in later life, an
increase of four percentage points from last year."

Rosy Retirement Glasses?

Workers continue to express the same confidence about
their financial prospects in retirement despite a continuing lack of
preparation and recent cutbacks in benefits.

Year

Very confident

Not at all confident

1996

19%

16%

1997

24

15

1998

22

13

1999

22

9

2000

25

10

2001

22

17

2002

23

10

2003

21

16

2004

24

13

2005

25

17

2006

24

14

Retirees are considerably more likely than workers to
feel very confident that they will have enough money to comfortably get
through their retirement years, perhaps because they already are living
in retirement.